May 4, 2016

Patch 6.9 Summary of Item Updates

After the insane amount of reworks Patch 6.9 brought us, I figured I'd do some analysis to help out with identifying what exactly is going on with the massive number of changes. Since we already talked about the major mage reworks and the "minor" mage reworks, this seems like a good time to make a dent in the item reworks as well.

For those of you wondering if this patch analysis will be a reoccurring article, it might be (depending on how much you guys like it), but on a standard patch size I'll probably condense it into one page. This one just happens to be ginormous!

Introduction

After the insane amount of reworks Patch 6.9 brought us, I figured I'd do some analysis to help out with identifying what exactly is going on with the massive number of changes. Since we already talked about the major mage reworks and the "minor" mage reworks, this seems like a good time to make a dent in the item reworks as well.

For those of you wondering if this patch analysis will be a reoccurring article, it might be (depending on how much you guys like it), but on a standard patch size I'll probably condense it into one page. This one just happens to be ginormous!

Item Change Recap

Mana Regen Items

Tear of the Goddess

Mana Regen changed to refunding 15% of mana spent

The change from a regen to a pure mana refund type originally seems like a big buff, but in reality may just be more of a lateral change. As most champions that currently build tear tend to be more of a low cooldown type of champion to begin with, impact may be low overall. Time will tell which champions this ends up being stronger on.

Catalyst of the Aeons

Cost reduced by 100 gold,New Passive: "15% of damage taken from champions is gained as mana. Spending mana restores 20% of mana spent as health, up to 15 per cast (toggle spells heal for up to 15 per second)"

This item looks like a massive buff for mana hungry champions that also have a built-in self heal, such as Swain and Yorick. Expect to see much more of them in the future as a result. Even tank based champions may build this and transition it into a Righteous Glory or one of the new Hextech items (see below).

Rod of Ages

Cost reduced by 400 gold, AP reduced by 20, mana reduced by 100.New Passive: 15% of damage taken from champions is gained as mana. Spending mana restores 25% of mana spent as health, up to 25 per cast (toggle spells heal for up to 25 per second)

Similar to Catalyst, this item may be a new go-to for AP based tanks like Maokai simply for its trading potential.

Chalice of Harmony

New Passive: Grants 100% base regen per 5 seconds if your current health percentage is lower than your current mana percentage. Grants 100% base mana regen per 5 seconds if your current mana percentage is lower than your current health percentage.

The changes on this item look like they could be a sizable buff to champions like Soraka, that passively drains both her health and her mana pool.

Zhonya's Hourglass

Massive cost reduction on this item, and in return the damage was reduced and the cooldown on the item active was significantly increased. They also gave it a free 10% cooldown. Overall it's a buff to champions like Kennen and Fiddle, who need this item to stay relevant mid-game, and won't be using it without their ultimates. However, it's a nerf to Fizz and other AP assassins with low cooldown escapes.

Hextech Items

Hextech Revolver

Cost reduced by 150, spell vamp removed.New Passive: Damaging an enemy with a basic attack does a bonus 75~150 damage based on level in bonus magic damage with a 40 second cooldown.

Really cheap item now that deals additional burst damage. Major buff to any champion's early game, and expect Kayle, Akali, and Teemo to see fast rises. Especially Teemo, as he just received a buff this patch too.

This item looks super interesting, and the most obvious use is for burst mages that already have high mobility, such as Fizz. However, as the first item that actually provides a champion a dash ability, one could also wonder which junglers it could be built on with low mobility for stronger ganks...maybe Phoenix Udyr? It could also be used on low mobility burst mages such as Malzahar, Brand, or Vladimir. Vladimir especially since it doesn't give any mana or mana regen.

Enchantment: Bloodrazor

This new enchantment seems significantly weaker than Devourer, and doesn't really seem like a good replacement. As games tend to snowball quickly, a 3% maximum health item is somewhat aimed at helping fight the tank meta, but most champions will likely just pick up Warrior for the early game and a Blade of the Ruined King if they need to take down high health tanks.

Spirit Visage

Guardian Angel - ADC Buff?

Cost reduced by 300 to 2400, magic resist reduced by 15 to 45.

Similar to Banshee's this change should help squishies with an earlier spike in defensive against assassins and dive based champions. To think marksmen were complaining they didn't get a buff this patch!

Quicksilver Sash & Mercurial Scimitar - BIG NERF

Active effect now only removes crowd control debuffs.

Buff to Zed, Vladimir, Poppy, etc.

Hexdrinker, Maw of Malmortius, Sterak's Gage

Both of the old effects proc when one triggers, but only once and then put on cooldown.

It looks like tanks will choose to pick up Maw of Malmortius, whereas squishier champions will pick up Sterak's Gage. It's somewhat of an early to mid game buff and a late game nerf to champions that used to build both.

Sunfire Cape

Cost increased 200g to 2900

Bami's Cinder also lost 20 health. This one's mostly a community complaint nerf, but it does make the item slightly undesirable. It doesn't make much of a difference since everyone's going to be stacking magic resist against insanely powerful mages anyway though.

Enchantment: Cinderhulk

Damage immolation changed from 15 + 0.6 per level to 7 + 2 per level (breaks even at 6)

I'd say this is an overall buff. Tank champions are now able to deal more damage mid to late game.

Vision Ward - New Minigame

Health dropped to 4, but regenerates 1 health every 3 seconds after 5 seconds out of combat.

I kinda like this change, as it now gives you much more incentive to fight enemy champions if they're attacking it.

Farsight Alteration - Big Nerf!

Cooldown increased from 90-60 seconds to 148-99 seconds

Massive nerf on this trinket...I may actually have to start buying sweepers, or might just switch back to yellow trinket.

Righteous Glory - BIG NERF

Now receives same passive as Rod of Ages (the one that heals via mana spend). It no longer speeds up allies and the movespeed and slow have been nerfed.

Right when I was enjoying building it, they nerfed it. Rip. It's still good for single target lockdown tanks, but otherwise few people will be building it.

Warmog's Armor

Conclusions

This analysis definitely ended up a lot longer than I expected. Overall there's a strong move towards cooldown reduction, and with the new item build paths I'd expect almost every champion to hit 40% cooldown reduction at full build. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but does make the game much more spammy.

There seems to be a good mixture of nerfs and buffs, but the items to watch out for are definitely Guinsoo's Rageblade, the new Athene's Grail, and the new Hextech lineup.

Farsight Alteration is probably the big loser this patch, and Devourer removal will shake up the jungle pecking order quite a bit.

What do you think about the new item changes? Think there's something particularly overpowered? Comment below!

First time to Nerfplz.Lol or not sure where to find everything? Try the Site Map